Lizzy Cooperman
⤏ IN CONVERSATION WITH JAMIE LOFTUS
⤏ PHOTOS BY IRIS RAY | MAKE-UP BY BRITANNY GUTIERREZ | STYLING BY LINDSEY HARTMAN
⤏ ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED MARCH 2018
When interviewing my friend, comedian Lizzy Cooperman, it truly only felt like a matter of time before she’d bring up bone broth. Spoiler alert: she did, and I love her forever. Lizzy’s comedy is so full of energy and the beautiful bizarre because that’s her — she’s exciting, loud, compassionate and cuts to the core of our insecurities without passing judgement on them. Whether she’s banging on a keyboard onstage, bragging about how sex positive she is, or getting you up to speed on how your stars are aligned, the Cooperman Experience is a rare and beautiful one you should cross state lines to seek out. We scissored, brainwise, for a brief and glorious moment and what informs our comedy, mystics, and the five-hundred-hour-long audiobook she’s definitely going to finish someday. For sure.
JAMIE: At this moment, what kind of crystals are you packing?
LIZZY: Pyrite! That’s it. My friend gave me citrine to put in my bra, but it fell out when I went shopping. So it’s clearing negativity at the Glendale Galleria.
J: Supposing we’re new to Lizzy, what are three things that you love implicitly?
L: Balconies, epiphanies, and eye contact.
J: What or who are your comedy inspirations that aren’t comedians?
L: Bone broth, My Dinner with Andre, falling outs, rigidity, Laurie Anderson, witches, defunct department stores, Suze Orman, herbal tinctures, and Carol Channing singing “Jam Tomorrow”.
J: When did you add the keyboard to your act? What was the motivation behind it?
L: I did it to keep myself excited. I like dramatic soundscapes and I had a vision of what it would be like to underscore my act with dissonant, kind of haunting sounds.
J: One of my favorite jokes of yours is your continued listening to Maggie Gyllenhaal’s Anna Karenina audiobook. How far are you into it?
L: I am on chapter twelve thousand three-hundred ninety-two and I’ve been listening for 17 years.
J: What do you do when the audiobook finally ends?
L: I want to be buried alive on Russian soil. Regardless!
“‘You’re not in love with the 32-year-old guy named Oaf who sells beer cheese soup at the Renaissance Fair.’”
J: How does comedy inform how you interpret the world?
L: I think I enjoy my life a lot more by knowing I can talk about it onstage. Like the other day I cried in the parking lot of a Sprouts and it was a quick turnaround.
J: What’s your favorite joke of yours to tell?
L: It’s a new one about how my GPS voice was replaced by a younger woman.
J: I had a dream last night that my mother grew very tall, put me in a yogurt cup and ate me with a spoon. What does it mean?
L: If you’re asking my psychic alter ego, she’d say you feel that your mother is trying to drain you of your sweetness. She’d also say to find her on Patreon. But if you’re asking Lizzy Cooperman she’d say stop eating after 8PM.
J: You pull heavily from New Age culture in your material — what initially drew you to it?
L: When I was 24 I lived in New York and was approached by this Jewish mystic named Baba Shalom. He had his own cable access show and teetered down the street like a vulture in a bathrobe. Anyway, one day he “discovered” me at a coffee shop, thought I had psychic powers, and took me on as his apprentice. Also, my mom was psychic, but that’s more of a biopic. I like to draw a tarot card in the morning for guidance. I like that there’s an impermanence to tarot — you’re interpreting your life through symbols. It’s like going to a museum.
J: What’s something you wish you could have told yourself when you were a teenager?
L: I’d say, “You’re not in love with the 32-year-old guy named Oaf who sells beer cheese soup at the Renaissance Fair.” And then I’d say, “Luxuriate in your health, don’t live in that one apartment, and you’re mildly allergic to mangoes.”
J: Your album comes out soon! What can we expect!
L: Thanks for asking! This is my first album so I want it to be an archive of my jokes riding on the energy of the night!
J: Will you call me hot or is that too big an ask?
L: I would never reduce you to a sexual being in a professional setting, but my solar plexus says YES.
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⤏ JAMIE LOFTUS (SHE/HER) IS A COMEDIAN, WRITER, AND ANIMATOR IN LOS ANGELES (IF THAT'S OKAY), ORIGINALLY FROM BOSTON (WITH YOUR PERMISSION, OF COURSE). JAMIE IS A NATIONALLY TOURING STANDUP COMEDIAN, TV WRITER, AND HAS BEEN FEATURED NEARLY EVERYWHERE, INCLUDING THE NEW YORKER, VICE, MOTHERBOARD, THE BOSTON GLOBE, SPLITSIDER, FAST COMPANY, MAN REPELLER, PLAYBOY MAGAZINE AND PASTE MAGAZINE. JAMIE IS A FREAK BITCH AND HAS ABSOLUTELY NO INTENTION OF DYING.